My impression was that "No replacements" mean't that aircraft would not be supplied to the group but that pilots still would if the group was short. Otherwise there would be a lot of abandoned planes without pilots sitting around on various bases, unable to move anywhere. Looking at the manual I see several references to planes in the "replacement" entries but no mention of pilots. Did the group receive any aircraft to replace combat losses?

Here is the quote for the accept replacements/no replacements toggle in the manual:

"...will either not allow or allow, respectively, replacements to be accepted by the squadron (this is useful to select when you want certain squadrons to have a priority in receiving aircraft)" [my emphasis]

I agree - I've been seeing my "good" pilots be allocated to air units which are short ( i.e. have more planes than pilots ) "sometimes" ... but then again most of the time it waits for me to push the "get pilot boo-tawn". But to get that many in one turn - tanaka must have had a fairly hefty pool ! ( I usually have 0 or 1 naval pilots in my good pool - I keep track of the units waiting for them - and at the start of each turn - distribute them ).

I need to check the scenario (pls let me know which one it is?) but if there are pilots who are waiting to come into play (ie have a delay of one or more days), these pilots will join groups without impacting your replacement pilot pool. They have already reached pilot status and could be assumed to be coming in from some other area.

I am not sure if that always happened in earlier releases. I know in the "Get pilot" testing I did, there were lots of pilots in some cases who were stuck "in transit" (mainly Allied groups) because their group had their fill of pilots. The restriction has been relaxed to allow groups to pull in pilots from other same nationality groups - this also relieves the full pilot table issues.

I need to check the scenario (pls let me know which one it is?) but if there are pilots who are waiting to come into play (ie have a delay of one or more days), these pilots will join groups without impacting your replacement pilot pool. They have already reached pilot status and could be assumed to be coming in from some other area.

I am not sure if that always happened in earlier releases. I know in the "Get pilot" testing I did, there were lots of pilots in some cases who were stuck "in transit" (mainly Allied groups) because their group had their fill of pilots. The restriction has been relaxed to allow groups to pull in pilots from other same nationality groups - this also relieves the full pilot table issues.

I don't have #104 but it is based on #4, so pilot database file is most likely the same.

After turn one, the Japanese player has 30 "experienced" pilots (both IJA and IJN) awaiting assignment to groups [they have a delay of one day]. This is in addition to any pilots in the replacement pool.

So once the pool is exhausted, you could still get the occasional "experienced" pilot showing up rather than a novice.

Also, as the planes in the group become ready, I am drawing some pilots to match the ready planes because "Allow Replacements" is on. And it is happening even before I reached 18 ready planes in the group.

In your example, the group had 18 ready planes and 7 pilots. It filled up with extra 11 pilots to max out the ready planes, some of which were probably novices as the EXP dropped. Then in the replacement phase, it 9 more planes as "being repaired". And presumely, the next turn those 9 planes became ready and 9 more pilots joined the group.

Isn't this the way it is suppose to work?

BTW, even at 1.77 there were still a few issues that were not always working properly with the "getting pilot" function which I was working on with MikeW to correct by 1.795.

The way I believe it works - and it seems to work this way when I play...

Turn replacements on for air units means planes... not pilots. So if you have 18 planes (out of 27) and 7 pilots (out of 18 available aircraft) the unit will always try to pull in enough pilots to have 1 pilot per available aircraft - whether or not the replacements are on or off. The unit will not pull in pilots for damaged aircraft - so when you get aircraft replacements, you will not automatically get pilots until the aircraft are repaired and ready for duty - but you can always use the Get Pilot button to fill out your air unit ahead of time before the planes are ready - this will usually save you a turn or two in the long run as it takes 1-2 turns to pull in pilots for available planes.

The way I believe it works - and it seems to work this way when I play...

Turn replacements on for air units means planes... not pilots. So if you have 18 planes (out of 27) and 7 pilots (out of 18 available aircraft) the unit will always try to pull in enough pilots to have 1 pilot per available aircraft - whether or not the replacements are on or off. The unit will not pull in pilots for damaged aircraft - so when you get aircraft replacements, you will not automatically get pilots until the aircraft are repaired and ready for duty - but you can always use the Get Pilot button to fill out your air unit ahead of time before the planes are ready - this will usually save you a turn or two in the long run as it takes 1-2 turns to pull in pilots for available planes.

Xargun

this group and my other groups will not pull in pilots if replacements are off. and yes you are right if replacements are on it is supposed to pull in planes not pilots the first turn. then next turn it will pull in pilots once its planes are full.

the way its been working for me is replacements on pulls in planes unless there are pilots in the pool it pulls in both. thats why i always use the get pilot button to steal them first before the computer does it automatically...

This group has 24 planes and 24 pilots. I have turned replacements on. Next turn i will have 27 planes and 24 pilots. because this is the way its supposed to work! Pulling in planes first not pilots! This is where I will use the get pilot button to get 3 more experienced pilots from the pool.

THE NEXT TURN: Voila! The way its supposed to work! The group only took in planes and not BOTH! This is so I can now hit the get pilot button three times to get 3 more experienced pilots out of my trained pool.

So now this very same turn I will now hit the get pilot button three times and get three trained experienced pilots from my pool and turn replacements OFF. I now have 27 all great pilots and no crappy ones to fill out my 27 planes and this is how it is supposed to work!